The Story of the New England Relay - Lucky Team #13

6 states... 220+ miles... over the mountains and through the woods (literally)... from Rhode Island to Maine, the 12 of us (we did finally fill the team) went... fast... like 6:55 pace fast... and we ROCKED... we had many staple-bound race booklets... our vans smelled of rich not showering for 24+ hours and running in the rain...

Since this post would be ridiculously long if I attempted to recap 24+ hours, this week will be devoted to the telling of the "whole" story of the New England Relay. Our journey started on Friday. We departed Raleigh and drove... and drove... and drove... picked up Mike D. in CT... ate some dinner... and drove... and got to the hotel around midnight. We got as much sleep as possible, woke up, and met up with our two other teammates - Sumner and Mike "The Duke" (we were under the impression that he was on Duke's triathlon team... he is not... doesn't even go to Duke... lives in MA). It was raining when we left the hotel around 8AM. Luckily, the rain had stopped by the time we got to the start of the race. Ben warmed up a bit, we attempted to decorate the vans, and we cheered for some of the other teams who had earlier start times (they were sending teams off every 15min or so). The announcer kept saying "See you in Maine" with each new start. I think this is when the enormity of our undertaking began to set in. We were all pretty nervous, and the finish seemed like a long way away...